Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Just delaying packing (who likes it) after a 3 night stay in Washington DC and we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The city is really well thought out – being designed to be the capital from the start REALLY shows, and there are some fantastic neo-classical buildings.

Well we have visited the Capitol Building (nice), Smithsonian Museums (Air and Space, Native Indian, Natural History), The Spy Museum – which is really cool, so much so we spent 4 hours there; The Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korian War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Walked passed the White-House. Unfortunately the Library of congress was closed when we went to visit it (bummer for a couple of Bibliofiles such as X and Me).
Had some great thrills in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where they have a V2, ME109 and a ME262 – even got to touch some genuine moon rock . Unfortunately only half the museum is in Washington DC the rest is by Dulles Airport where they have a Space Shuttle and Blackbird SR71 spy-plane; but we don’t have the time

People are all friendly and polite here – although you don’t see many caucasians in the “menial” jobs. American’s in DC all seem to have a skewed view of history regarding what is and is not Treason. But History is rarely objective, which is a pity.

For the final few hours we are going to visit Arlington Military Cemetry and GeorgeTown.

I arrived in the US on Saturday Afternoon (22nd Sept), and as I type this I am in a manhatten shop called “Destination Motherhood” where my wife is buy maternaty wear. This shop has managed to solve the perenial problem of “what to do with a man whilst the little lady is shopping” – it provides a nice sit-down area with comfortable leather chairs and laptops with internet access – are you listening Europe!!!! A man needs a haven of peace in the madness of shopping shopping shopping!!! 

I was down grocery shopping at my local mega-store “Tesco’s” yesterday where I came across a very odd sight in the “Cheese” and “Yougurt” section… There was a middle age lady, shopping basket half-full flurtively looking around to make sure she was not being watched and then using a Digital Camera to photograph a shelve of Yogurt; she then repeated this in the cheese section and other places. Very Very Odd I thought. It is amazing what some people do for a hobby. You can just imagine the lady showing her extensive collection of snap-shots to her close friends (well you would not want anyone you work with seeing them otherwise they would consider you a candidate for the local psychiatric hospital) and say “here is a strawberry surprise collectors edition yogurt I photographed at Tesco’s in Dublin last September – lovely carton isn’t it”.

The world is a strange, strange place – would be rather dull if we were all the same.

May I formally introduce to you, planet earth, NextGen…..

Looks a bit like ET, but NextGen as X and I call it is doing well and now around 5 months from conception. Still in awe at it all, and I am sure Dad (my late father who died in March) would and is thrilled. He would have loved the birth of another Grand-Child.

Four months to go!!!! Life, Love and the Lord are wonderful

Had the “big scan” in Holis street – bit disappointed at the resolution, but the baby’s fine which is the important thing. Brain, Kidneys and all are there; and we could see the heart beating. Little bugger crossed its legs so we could not see the gender – which we don’t mind – as long as its “normal” and “healthy”. A first time dad at 43 – wow.

It’s not often you get to meet a legend. But I did today – and it was all thanks to my wonderful wife X and the company she works for Depfa Bank. Depfa sponsor (thanks) the Royal Irish Academy lectures on various subjects and have some really good speakers. A couple of years ago there was John Nash (the chap Russell Crowe played in “A Beautiful Mind“) who gave an interesting maths lecture; But today it was James D Watson who along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkin’s was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the structure of DNA (a double-helix) and it was a cracker. Bertie Aherm may be little more than a foot note in history, but James Watson and the others wrote a complete chapter – being the founding fathers of Modern Genetics, a whole new discipline in science AND medicine – and holding out potential cures for so many diseases. People will be still talking about Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins a thousand years for now.

No Doubt you can see, like the 100 odd others who were there I was entralled by the man. A man who in his late 70’s has still got all his faculties; still writing and meeting people and pushing science hard amongst those grey and shadowy men in power. The talk, after a short ceremony where Dr Watson signed the members book (see photo), talk the form of a Science Journalist from the Irish Times asking questions about Dr Watson’s life and work, Although I knew that Watson from childhood was a book-worm (”never good at sports”) I did not know for example that after the nobel prize he was a Science Advisor to many American Presidents including Kenedy and that he saved Cold-Harbour from Bankruptcy and made it one of the premier genetics labs in the world.

There is one thing I do agree with Dr Watson – “Anyone would be stupid to go into Science for a career” because the money is so poor. I did my MSc in Computer Applications, but would not go into a Phd because it cost too much and I could earn a lot more being an IT Contractor. I would love to do a PHD and do full-time research, but it does not pay enough to buy a house and raise a family. This is problem for society, and increasingly so in the future where only the big corporations will be able pay for research and reap the rewards. Science and research (of the right kind) is too important to leave to the whims of politicians and corporations. We should fund science at a greater level than say defense – in the medium to long run we will all benifit. Its obscene that most premier footballers make more in a couple of weeks than 99.99% of scientists do in a year!!!

Science needs more funds now – so get out there an badger your local council, political representitive and corporation.

Thanks James D. Watson; it was a pleasure meeting you.

Here is a photo I took of Dr Watson accepting his honoury membership of the Royal Irish Academy.